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Erica Jong
| birthplace = New York City, United States | occupation = author and teacher | nationality = American | period = 1973-present | genre = primarily fiction and poetry | movement = | notableworks = Fear of Flying, Shylock's Daughter, Seducing the Demon | influences = | influenced = | spouse = Kenneth David Burrows | children = Molly Jong Fast }} Erica Jong (born March 26, 1942) is an American poet and novelist. Life Family Jong (pronounced "Yong") was born and grew up in New York City as Erica Mann. She is the middle daughter of Seymour Mann (ne Nathan Weisman, died 2004), a drummer turned businessman of Polish Jewish ancestry who owned a gifts and home accessories companyhttp://www.giftsanddec.com/article/CA387131.html known as "one of the world's most acclaimed makers of collectible porcelain dolls". Born in England of a Russian immigrant family, her mother, Eda (Mirsky) (born 1911), was a painter and textile designer who also designed dolls for her husband's company.As her granddaughter Molly Jong-Fast has written in her memoir, Read from Book, "Grandma Eda painted flowers and children. Grandma's flower paintings were filled with lavish colors, sensuous shapes, and the hand of her abused housekeeper, who'd been holding the flowers since early the day before. Grandmaâ€™s flower paintings were the stuff of midwestern hotel room walls. But Grandma's portraits of her children and grandchildren seemed to express something more than just a love of flowers or housekeepers: Grandma's paintings of her family highlighted her distaste for motherhood". See: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/bookExcerpt/978140006144 Jong has an elder sister, Suzanna, who married Lebanese businessman Arthur Daou, and a younger sister, Claudia, a social worker who married Gideon S. Oberweger (the chief executive officer of Seymour Mann Inc. until his death in 2006). Among her nephews is Peter Daou, who writes "The Daou Report" for salon.com and was 1/2 of the dance-music group The Daou. Education Jong is a 1963 graduate of Barnard College, and earned an M.A. in 18th-century English Literature from Columbia University in 1965. Marriages and career Jong has been married 4 times. Her earliest 2 marriages, to college sweetheart Michael Werthman and to Allan Jong, a Chinese American psychiatrist, share many similarities to those of the narrator described in Fear of Flying. Jong lived for 3 years, 1966-1969, in Heidelberg, Germany, with her 2nd husband, while he was stationed at an army base there. She was a frequent visitor to Venice, and wrote about that city in her novel, Shylock's Daughter. Her 3rd husband was Jonathan Fast, a novelist and social work educator, and son of novelist Howard Fast (this marriage was described in How to Save Your Own Life and Parachutes and Kisses). She has a daughter from her 3rd marriage, Molly Jong-Fast. Jong's 4th husband is Kenneth David Burrows, a New York litigation attorney.http://www.martindale.com/Kenneth-David-Burrows/457180-lawyer.htm In the late 1990s Jong wrote an article about her current marriage in the magazine Talk. In 2007, her literary archive was acquired by Columbia University in New York City. Writing Jong is best known for her debut novel, Fear of Flying (1973), which created a sensation with its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desires. Although it contains many sexual elements, the book is mainly the account of a young, hypersensitive woman, in her late twenties, trying to find who she is and where she is going. It contains many psychological, humorous, descriptive elements, and rich cultural and literary references. The book tries to answer the many conflicts arising in women in today's world, of womanhood, femininity, love, the quest for freedom and purpose. Recognition Awards * Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize (1971) * Sigmund Freud Award For Literature (1975) * United Nations Award For Excellence In Literature (1998) * Deauville Award For Literary Excellence In France In popular culture Jong was mentioned in the Bob Dylan song "Highlands." Publications Poetry *''Fruits and Vegetables: Poems''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1971; London: Secker & Warburg, 1971. *''Half Lives''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1973; London: Secker & Warburg, 1974. *''Loveroot''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1975; London: Secker & Warburg, 1977. *''At the Edge of the Body''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1979; London: Granada, 1981. *''Ordinary Miracles: New poems''. New York: New American Library, 1983; London: Granada, 1984. * Becoming Light: Poems new and selected. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. * Love Comes First: Poems. 2009. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2009. Novels *''Fear of Flying: A novel''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1973; London: Grafton, 1973. *''How to Save Your Own Life: A novel''. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1977; London: Secker & Warburg, 1977. *''Fanny: Being the true history of the adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones . New York: New American Library, 1980; London: Granada, 1980. *''Witches. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1981; London & New York: Granada, 1982. *''Parachutes and Kisses''. New York & Scarborough, ON: New American Library, 1984; London: Granada, 1974. * Serenissima: A novel of Venice. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987; London: Bantam, 1987. * Any Woman's Blues. New York: Harper & Row, 1990; London: Chatto & Windus, 1990. * Inventing Memory: A novel of mothers and daughters. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. *''Sappho's Leap: A novel''. New York: Norton, 2003; London: Arcadia Books, 2003. Non-fiction *''Four Visions of America''. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1977. *''The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller''. New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992; London: Chatto & Windus, 1993. *''Fear of Fifty: A midlife memoir''. New York: HarperCollins, 1994; London: Chatto & Windus, 1994. *''What Do Women Want? Bread, roses, sex, and power''. New York: HarperCollins, 1998; London: Bloomsbury, 1999. *Charlotte Templin, Conversations with Erica Jong. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. *''Seducing the Demon: Writing for my life'' (memoir). New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2006. Juvenile *''Megan's Book of Divorce: A kid's book for adults'' (illustrated by Freya Tanz). New York: New American Library, 1984; London: Granada, 1985 **also published as Megan's Two Houses: A story of adjustment (illustrated by Freya Tanz). West Hollywood, CA: Dove, 1996. Edited *''Sugar in My Bowl: Real women write about real sex''. New York: Ecco Press, 2011. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Erica Jong, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 13, 2014. See also * List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems * Poems by Erica Jong *Erica Jong b. 1942 at the Poetry Foundation *Erica Jong at PoemHunter (162 poems) ;Quotes *Erica Jong quotes at Brainy Quote ;Books *Erica Jong at Amazon.com ;About *Erica Jong in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Erica Jong at Famous Authors * Erica Jong at NNDB * *Erica Jong Official website. *''What this woman wants'' - The Guardian, April 3, 1999. (in-depth interview and profile) *[http://www.powells.com/review/2006_08_08 Review of Seducing the Demon] at Powells.com *Aging and Sex with Erica Jong - October 3, 2007 Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:American feminist writers Category:American novelists Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American people of Russian descent Category:American poets Category:American women writers Category:Barnard College alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts alumni Category:Jewish feminists Category:Jewish women writers Category:Jewish writers Category:Writers from New York City Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Jewish poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets